Schedule 9 - Repeals
NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill
2:30 am
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
This is another fiendishly descriptive part of the Bill. The amendments add to the table in schedule 9, which in turn lists all the repeals provided for in other clauses and schedules to the Bill. The Acts referred to are, I hope, self-evident, but I draw the Committee's attention to amendment No. 264, which
in a curious and somewhat inexplicable way—I shall try to explain in a moment—repeals provisions in the current Bill. I suspect that that must be a first.
Reference is made to amendments to section 15 of the National Health Service Act 1977 that are added to paragraph 2 of schedule 2 by amendment No. 99, which the Committee has already approved. We have already amended the Bill in Committee, which is what the amendments to schedule 9 try to reflect. Reference is also made to amendments to section 18 of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 through amendment No. 100. Both the relevant amendments provide for their own repeal. They are amendment provisions that are themselves repealed by provisions in the Health Act 1999 that have yet to come into force.
I realise that a fog is probably descending on the Committee, but I shall carry on. I should warn the hon. Member for West Chelmsford that if he asks me any questions about this matter, I shall definitely have to correspond with him.
The amendments provide for their own repeal, as well as for the repeal of the substantive provisions that they amend. In summary, the amendments are further repeals that take account of the provisions in the Bill. In essence, they are tidying-up provisions. Schedule 9 lists in tabular form all the repeals included in other clauses and schedules to the Bill, and amendments Nos. 259 to 264 simply add to that table. They are all consequential repeals, which are necessary in the light of amendments to the Bill that we accepted in Committee. I do not propose to detain the Committee by discussing them individually. As I said, the Acts referred to are, I hope, self-evident.